The aging process (including biological, cultural, and environmental components) will be studied in the rural, semi-isolated, stable population of Robertson County, Kentucky. This agricultural community of Scots-Irish descendents has a time depth of ca. 200 years. The primary objectives of the longevity study among these people are threefold. These include: (1) to increase our knowledge about the number, types, and interactions among biological, cultural, and environmental factors affecting differential longevity: (2) to develop an operational model of the pathways to longevity which will facilitate the explication of the aging process; and (3) to provide a thorough analysis of the entire community in order to document the social lifeways of older people. The practical implications of such a study are: (1) providing the bases for the development of regional social and health care policies; and (2) providing guidelines for the implementation of responsive social and health care services for the older aged segment of the population--which, in Robertson County, comprises ca. 10 percent of the population. The specific aims of the Kentucky project are: (1) to collect a wide variety of data for a mixed longitudinal study of longevity; and (2) to test a series of interrelated hypotheses concerning genetic and cultural factors affecting longevity. To achieve these aims, data will be collected for a number of demographic, biogenetic, and nutritional variables as well as a large number of socio-cultural ones. Among the controls to be imposed upon the stratified sampling methodology are age, sex, ethnic identify, SES, physical fitness, health and nutritional status. The analytical strategy will be multivariate employing a number of techniques. In short, the Kentucky longevity project--as a part of a binational program--will be unique because longevity will be examined at the populational level, both cultural and biological factors will be evaluated in a community setting rather than in an institutional or clinical setting, and the approach will be integrative and cross-cultural.